Adiponitrile at 100 K

Adiponitrile, C₆H₈N₂, is a key intermediate in the synthesis of the polyamide Nylon 66 and is produced industrially on a large scale. We have determined the crystal and molecular structure of adiponitrile by single‐crystal X‐ray analysis at 100 K, a suitable crystal (m.p. 275 K) having been grown from the melt at low temperature. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P 2₁/c with Z = 2. In the crystal structure, the molecule adopts an exact C_i‐symmetric gauche –anti –gauche conformation of the C—C—C—C skeleton about an inversion centre. The molecules are densely packed, with short intermolecular contacts between the α‐H and nitrile N atoms.     

Thioacetanilide at 120 K

The title compound, C₈H₉NS, has four symmetry‐independent molecules in the asymmetric unit. These molecules link into two independent infinite N—H...S hydrogen‐bonded chains in the a‐axis direction with graph‐set notation C₂²(8). The NH—CS group adopts a trans conformation and forms a dihedral angle of about 50° with the phenyl ring. The intermolecular hydrogen‐bond energy calculated by the density functional theory (DFT) method is −14.95 kJ mol⁻¹. The correlation between the IR spectrum of this compound and the hydrogen‐bond energy is also discussed. This molecular system is of interest because of its biological function.